John M. Hill

Beowulf in Modern English Verse

Arts & Literature

“Sung-Il Lee’s translation of Beowulf, a boon for Old English students, has what Robert Stevick called fine renditions. Phrase by phrase it captures the poem’s variations and strong, forward pace, moving like successive waves to a resting place. Beowulf’s artful complexities beautifully guide Lee’s translation.”

Beowulf in Parallel Texts

Arts & Literature

“Sung-Il Lee’s parallel text of Beowulf, a boon for Old English students, has what Robert Stevick calls ‘fine renditions.’ Phrase by phrase it captures the poem’s variations and strong, forward pace, moving like successive waves to a resting place. Beowulf’s artful complexities beautifully guide Lee’s translation. His edition includes textual and explanatory notes, along with an account of the poem’s so-called ‘digressions.’”

Counting the Stars at Night

Arts & Literature

“Yoon Dong-Ju’s poetry includes austerity, sadness, but also joyous thought, such as the image of a ripening apple. His poetry and meditative prose, fluently translated by Sung-Il Lee, a Korean scholar of medieval English poetry, is often haiku-like: ‘When the air gets damp, cool winds blow from the pines.’ His is poetry we need.”

Dynamics of Discernment

Philosophy

Foreword

“This book is well written, has clear focus, and makes effective use of other philosophical and religious sources from both East and West. . . . The reader will find in Dr. Costello’s book solid, practical advice when it comes to actual decision-making. . . . I recommend this book to all who wish to know more about the choices they have made and will continue to make as they discover who they are and who they want to become.”

Nine Peaks

Arts & Literature

“This is highly formal verse, often four couplets in two stanzas, sometimes five to seven characters per line, which express life’s mysteries and the power of lament. Also, there are journeyings where peach blossoms bloom and which invoke the spirit of mountains. Lyricism gives way to social critique and autobiographical narratives where students, teachers, husbands, and fathers reflect on mountains, fading hills, the setting sun. This is poetry expressed in tight forms and ably translated.”

Twelve Old English Poems

Arts & Literature

“The translations are fluent, often wonderfully so. Although Old English tones, alliterative stress across half-lines, and meter are hard to capture in modern English, Sung-Il Lee achieves many nice turns of phrase and line while also conveying the intensity of expression in the battle poems, the elegies, and in allusively obscure, puzzling poems, such as ‘Widsith,’ ‘Deor,’ and ‘The Wife’s Lament.’ Students new to Old English studies will welcome this lovely volume and its interesting commentary.”

White Village

Arts & Literature

“There is much to recommend in this poetry: wine enhances fellowship among dear poets, especially when set apart from life’s dust in a bower or an ancient cabin. There is leisure here as well as pathos when the poet laments his white hair. Still, where orioles sing among the flowers, inspiration flows from shadows under lone pines and rustling leaves. Moreover, meeting old friends is joyful, always an occasion for wine and poetry.”